Arvind Kejriwal asks PM Modi to apologise to the nation for Rohith Vemula's death

Rohith Vemula, a Dalit PhD scholar, committed suicide on Sunday after being expelled from the University of Hyderabad.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologise to the nation and fire the minister who was responsible for the death of Dalit PhD student Rohith Vemula from University of Hyderabad.

While Kejriwal took to Twitter to voice his outrage, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is set to arrive at the University of Hyderabad today to address the issue.

Students in Hyderabad University and Delhi have been staging agitations that has also led to a few arrests. Water cannons were used on students protesting outside the Human Resource Development ministry in Delhi and a few students were also detained. The Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, has also joined the protest by staging a one day hunger strike on Tuesday, reported ANI. Telangana Jagruti Yuva Morcha are protesting outside Bandaru Dattatreya's house, the union minister accused for being responsible for Vemula's death.

The suicide of the PhD scholar, who was expelled after disciplinary action was taken against him and four others by the university for beating an Akhil Bhartiya Vidya Parishad (ABVP) member, has been blamed on the Union Minister Bandaru Dattatreya. An FIR naming Dattatreya and Vice Chancellor Appa Rao has been filed for abetment of suicide. They have been charged under the SC/ST act.

The BJP Union Minister had written a letter to Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani in August saying that the university had become a "den of casteist, extremist and anti-national politics" in connection to a protest staged by Vemula and the others against the execution of Mumbai blasts accused Yakub Memon.

The minister had refused on Monday that the letter had anything to do with the suicide of the Dalit student while HRD minister Smriti Irani said that the "government doesn't intervene in the administration of universities".

The disciplinary action led to Rohith and the others being expelled from the hostel. They were sleeping in the open, in a tent, near the campus gates and demanded to be reinstated.

Politicians have also condemned the incidents that led to the suicide of the Dalit scholar.

"The incident clearly shows that our universities campus is no more places of politics of the decent. I condemn this attitude and I hope that strong action that taken against vice chancellor. He (vice-chancellor) should realise that it is because of him that a youth was compelled to take his own life," AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi told ANI.